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Tropical Heat is a Jet Ski racing competition in the tropics. Race in both Single and Multiplayer or just relax and enjoy riding on the beautiful ocean around lush tropical islands in Free Ride. Customize your character and jet ski. Build up power to boost your speed to get big air jumps to perform a variety of tricks and combo tricks. Earn high scores and achievements and win all 15 races to unlock Extreme. DRM PROTECTION ALLOWS 3 ACTIVATIONS PER PURCHASE.

Hi SomaticVision. Tropical Heat looks great, and after looking through your website I have a lot of respect for what you've done with serious games.

I realise that you have a game you're proud of and put in a bundle probably hoping give your game some exposure in the consumer games market to get the sales ball rolling, and maybe even push you through Steam Greenlight, but then you got a huge backlash that has nothing to do with the quality of the game itself.

Unfortunately, the activation issue is something that naturally eclipses the actual game. I can quite easily burn through 3 activations an a couple of months without trying (on a single PC without engaging in piracy) and I'm not keen on going out of my way to avoid doing that, or on the prospect of begging for a new activation. So instead of immediately firing up the game to see what it's like I put it off, reluctant to start using up the activations that I have. And at the end of the day you get people complaining without even having tried it, some of whom also downvote on Greenlight. Which is all quite tragic because judging by the video your game looks brilliant.

It's a fact of life that limited activation policies are quite hated just about everywhere in the consumer games market. It's not a Desura thing - go to Steam, for example, and you're likely to find them even less-forgiving than here. And you *want* to be on Steam - that does wonders for sales.

Honestly, a limited activation system is something that seriously alienates home users, and I strongly advise removing it. This market behaves very differently to the one you're used to, and removing limited activations here will very quickly help you immensely. I really hope to see you succeed and, in my opinion, this is the best way for you to do that.

Surely you must recognise that this is a completely different market though?

From our perspective, your DRM system is us having to ask for permission every time we want to install the game, knowing that at some point you might go "No, no more for you!". Stuff like that is the reason Spore was extremely highly pirated when it released, people don't like to have to ask permission for doing perfectly reasonable things like install a game they bought.

"because people can only access and launch the game through Desura itself"
"because the platform itself is a type of online authentication"
"DESURA IS THE DRM"

Wrong. Not only do the games launch without the client, most of the games can be installed without the client even installed. Ever noticed the Purchased Downloads bit on the right of the page for a game you own? There are usually standalone downloads there. Although Desura doesn't demand games be DRM-free like on GOG, they are DRM-'agnostic', that is they don't provide or add any DRM nor do they forbid it. It's completely up to developers. The majority of games on Desura don't have ANY DRM, not because the client provides security but because the developers are cool like that.

"It's the same way with Steam and most other digital distribution platforms."

That is the way it is with most games on Steam (but it's still up to the developer to decide whether to require the game run through the client). It's not like that with GamersGate, DotEmu, GOG (obviously), Indievania, Humble Store. There are other client based distributors that provide DRM services but it's certainly not most of them.

CLARIFICATION: By "you" in my comment below I mean SomaticVision, not you SirPrimalform (speaking rhetorically). I should have broken that into two paragraphs (one for you and one for Somatic). Frankly, I just want the guy to succeed, and online activations are not the way to do it.

Aaah..., I see what you're saying about the client not being needed to launch the games. Fair enough in that regard. But how do they GET to the link for download if they don't have your login credentials??? That's still a type of online authentication and protection (basically a "web-client" if you will). Who are you trying to fool, man? If I don't give out my username and password, then NOBODY gets my games. Period. Sure, I could pass around the EXE, but I own over 50 games on GoG.com. I have NEVER given a single EXE to a friend, let alone sold it. You don't see all of the other developers on Desura going bankrupt, do you? Heck, you don't even see the indie developers through GoG.com going bankrupt and "DRM-FREE" is their biggest selling point. If most other developers on this site can have a thriving business without additional online activations, then what makes you think you couldn't do the EXACT SAME THING. I mean, your game's not that bad, bro. You even got some 10/10 reviews in there. It would make you just as much money, if not MORE without the online activations, since more people would give you 10/10 reviews and tell their friends about you. You SERIOUSLY underestimate the power of community feedback here.

I'm actually staunchly anti-DRM and a big advocate of GOG.com! Anyway, you're right that people have to log in to download (just like GOG).

I think the piracy fears are attributable to the idea that someone might upload the game somewhere else where you don't need a username and password.

I'm not saying that fear justifies the DRM, but I don't think the guy is under the impression that people can download his game from Desura without paying. :P

EDIT: Just saw your addendum. Yeah, I was a little confused! It'd be nice if SomaticVision would come and have a little look at GOG and see how well it's all going. Maybe even talk to the staff, they might be able to allay his fears.